Pro-Gun Activists Are Using Australia’s Latest Shooting To Mock The Country’s Gun Laws

Pro-Gun Activists Are Using Australia’s Latest Shooting To Mock The Country’s Gun Laws

Just days after the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, pro-gun activists from across the world are using the event as fuel for their arguments. reddit.com Seven people, including four children, were found dead on a Western Australian property last week. The estranged father of the children, Aaron Cockman, told press on Sunday that police had told him the children’s grandfather, Peter Miles, had shot his daughter and four grandchildren, sleeping in their beds, before shooting his wife and calling the police. Miles was later found dead from a gunshot wound, Cockman said. The shooting, which was reported last Friday, has opened the floodgates for pro-gun activists who are using the incident as "evidence" that strict gun laws do not work. facebook.com facebook.com Australia’s gun policy has long been heralded by politicians and the public as a successful method for reducing gun-related deaths. In the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre then prime minister John Howard ordered an immediate gun buyback scheme that saw Australians hand in almost 700,000 guns. Posts about the Margaret River shooting have flooded social media. On Reddit’s pro-Trump subreddit r/TheDonald, members criticised the reporting of the event as a "tragedy" and mocked Australia’s now-apparent lack of gun control in multiple submissions. On Twitter and Facebook, pro-gun promoters used the Margaret River shooting to mock Australia’s gun laws as well. 🇺🇸 Ram 🇺🇸 @Ramkou Mass shooting in Australia?! So, their tough gun laws didn’t help? Seven people have been discovered […]